“Take a giant step back. Most products are better than the advertising that surrounds them.” This statement was made by Chuck Porter, Chairman, Crispin Porter + Bogusky at the Account Planning Group Conference in Miami last month. In his presentation, Chuck shared a few useful rules for producing truly creative advertising.
You can find Chuck’s presentation in full online at http://www.aaaa.org/eweb/startpage.aspx but here is a brief overview of his six rules:
1) It is hard to research yourself to glory (more on this later)
2) Beware metaphors unless you are Shakespeare
3) They know it is advertising
4) Cuddle up to the audience
5) Turn off the political correctness
6) Go overboard
One of the things Chuck said which really resonated with me was “Our job is to manipulate popular culture.” This is an interesting observation to make now, when so many people are interpreting –wrongly—that the rise of consumer generated media means that we should give our brands over to popular opinion. I agree with Chuck that our job as marketers is to shape opinion, not just react to it. Another speaker at the conference, Mark Beeching, Global Executive Creative Director, Digitas, echoed this point when he suggested we should be looking for “active branding ideas,” ones that engage people and their opinion.
As a researcher, my immediate reaction to Chuck’s first rule was, “Oh yes, so I am wasting my time am I?” And my reaction to the fourth rule was, “How do I cuddle up to the audience if I don’t know who’s in it, how they behave or what turns them on?” Doesn’t research – observational, qualitative, survey, behavioral - help provide the raw material from which insights and great ideas spring?
But perhaps Chuck was not saying that research is useless. I prefer to believe that he was saying that research, by itself, is not going to produce the flash of insight that leads to truly creative, big idea advertising. For that to happen, using Mark Beeching’s words, we need to imagine ourselves into the mind of the customer. Mark suggested we need to, “Love, like, or at least think and feel like the customer.” It is the combination of research, empathy and intuition that produces great insights.
And before we move on, Mark had a further salutary warning for us researchers. “Just because you found an insight does not mean it’s relevant.” All too often, we researchers get excited because we have found something—a difference between sub-groups, or a consensus in a focus group—and fail to ask ourselves, so what? Does it matter? What should we do differently as a result? Ann Hand, Senior Vice President, Global Retail Marketing, BP, offered some related advice, “I know what’s wrong. Tell me what I can get excited about.”
Another presentation that struck a chord with the entire audience was given by Dr. Bob Deutsch, Founder, Brain Sells. Again, you can find his presentation online at http://www.aaaa.org/eweb/startpage.aspx
I was particularly intrigued by the comments he made regarding brands, and the need to understand why people bond with them. His basic point was: if a brand is only defined by attributes, then it is not a brand, but a commodity. In other words, if the purchase decision is based solely on factual criteria, then the chosen good may be a good product, but it is not a brand. For this reason, he suggested, Emotion and Belief studies might serve us better than Attitude and Usage studies.
So what does make a brand? Dr. Bob suggests that brands help people become more of themselves. People, he suggested, are complex and conflicted creatures. Brands help people “elaborate their own self-story.” If we can understand “the spasm of sentiment” that leads people to buy a brand, then we will be far better able to communicate with them.
Finally, a theme that ran through the conference – inspiration is hard work, and it takes time and collaboration.
When asked what he wanted from account planners, Chris Wall, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & Mather New York, replied, “First, turn off your Blackberry. Second, give me something to execute that’s simple. Third, get your client to turn off their Blackberry.” Amen to that. You cannot engage with problems unless you focus on them—and isn’t that what inspiration really is, problem solving?
When someone quoted Ronald Reagan’s comment, “Facts are stupid things,” Gerry Graf, Executive Creative Director replied, “No, facts are not stupid. You need to take them in and let them sit a while.” In other words, facts need to be interpreted. We need time to find the story in the numbers.
Finally, Ann Hand summed up the need for collaboration as “Inspiration is a mutual thing . . . so positively provoke me.” Virtually all the creative people present said the same thing in different ways, i.e., Don’t throw numbers at me, just come in and talk to me, and tell me something new and relevant that I did not know before.
So, I guess the conference take-away for me was more a reminder than a new insight. Consumer insight is not about facts. It is about feelings, and understanding the feelings that cause people to buy the brands they do. This is not easy. It takes time and the ability to imagine yourself into the mind of someone whose beliefs, needs and feelings may well be different from your own.
Having said that, save me some work imagining what you think of this viewpoint. Please give me your comments and rate the post. Thank you.
(23 votes, average: 3.04 out of 5)
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August 16th, 2006 at 5:38 am
After reading this entry, I am left with the sense that all too often researchers are more concerned with breadth than depth. This, I believe, was a source of friction in the 90’s between agency researchers and planners — researchers skeptical at the narrowness (and lack of rigor) of the work of planners, while planners were contemptuous of the boring numbers developed by researchers. (Can’t we all just get along?)
My point being that all too frequently researchers take the easy route — we rely on the numbers to do our thinking. It’s safe there and we can hide behind our charts. What we really need to do is come out and lay our guts on the table and interpret the findings in the light of human experience. Yes, what does it mean, what does it imply, what can it do? Show the power of the idea. Researchers are humans too — as much as planners or creatives — let’s be bold and really interpret. Let’s be creative.
August 17th, 2006 at 9:38 am
Apart from the fact that I am really not sure I want to see your guts on the table, Phil, I think I agree with you, provided we don’t confuse personal feelings with those of the respondents.